Warning: Mention of sexual acts (that's so weird to say, but whatever)
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, BUT I DO OWN EVELYN AND THE REST OF MY CHARACTERS.
"The trips to the beach were all great," Marlene told Evelyn about her summer as the two of them were heading to the Great Hall for breakfast. "He even taught me some swimming moves that I didn't even know existed. However, the nights..." Marlene trailed off as she bit her lip. "Those summer nights were the best."
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"He's an amazing snogger and his hands can do miracles," Marlene whispered to her.
She did a double-take before she blinked. "Wait, are you trying-trying to say that Benjy fingered you?"
Marlene shushed her as a few people passed the two of them by. When they were out of earshot, her friends turned to her with the biggest smile Evelyn had ever seen. "Yes." Marlene nodded and Evelyn laughed. "It was amazing. Would definitely recommend."
"How did it feel?" Evelyn asked out of curiosity. Vanessa and Sheila had taught her a lot during the summer, but the two of them had spoken from a place of an experience. Marlene had a similar experience with this as her.
"It was a bit awkward at first." Her friend admitted. "But with time, the awkwardness was replaced with pleasure." Her friend sighed before smiling.
"Did you finish?"
Marlene shook her head. "No, but I think one of these days I'm going to." Evelyn chuckled with her friends. "It was still amazing though."
"I'm glad that you enjoyed your summer." Marlene hummed as they stepped on the first floor.
"How about you?" Marlene questioned her. "How was your summer?"
"Fun, especially in Lancaster. I had James and Sirius with me throughout July. They are quite entertaining." Her body shuddered as she remembered Rabastan telling her to stay away from her. She intended to keep her promise to him. She wasn't going to bother being friends with the Marauders anymore.
"How about at your dad's?"
Evelyn shuddered as she remembered the dream she had. Those five kids and that woman were haunting her since she had seen them in her dream. She didn't even know how she could tell Marlene about it. She was scared that her friend would think she was crazy.
"Same old, same old," Evelyn muttered. "Spend most of the time getting ready for the OWLs."
Marlene gaped. "OWLs? They're not until June, Eve." She reminded Evelyn who only shrugged in response. She needed to prepare earlier if she wanted to get all Os. She couldn't risk it. "Please, don't tell me you spend the whole night studying too."
"What would you say that?"
"Because you look like you haven't slept," Marlene told her and Evelyn scoffed. "Your left eye is bigger than your right one."
Evelyn scratched her right eye before sighing. "Yes, I didn't sleep last night." She admitted. "I was up all night doing the prefects' rounds schedule."
Marlene stopped in her tracks and raised an eyebrow. "You did what?!" Evelyn nodded her head. This had been the same reaction she got out of her friends as well. "Why would you do that?"
"Because Edgar Nott has left everything to Helen McCoy. I decided to help her out since her partner refuses to." Evelyn explained to Marlene who shook her head. "It's not a big deal." Evelyn lied. It was a big deal as she had to look at the lunar cycle for the upcoming nine months to make this schedule.
"Staying up all night to do a schedule is a big deal." Marlene pointed out. "I don't get how you do it." Her friend admitted. "You always seem to be on top of everything and you do it so effortlessly."
The truth was that Evelyn wasn't on top of everything. Right now, she was above the line of causing a disaster in many aspects of her life. Everything she did she put a lot of effort into it. She was sure that no one worked as hard as her to maintain her good grades in all classes.
She tilted her head. "It's a skill that it's hard to find."
Marlene nudged her. "Oh, you condescending little Ravenclaw." Evelyn let out a laugh. If she let any of her flaws show, it was her condescension. It wasn't as big as she pretended it to be, but she let it show. After all, it would be acceptable if she was. Most Ravenclaws were. "Don't you ever get tired of it?"
"Of course," Evelyn admitted. "It's all worth it in the end though." She muttered something that she didn't know if it was true or not.
As the two of them moved closer to the marble staircases that led to the Entrance Hall, the two of them spotted Lily descending them. Evelyn noticed that the girl seemed to be huffing as she was walking.
"What's up with Lily?"
Marlene rolled her eyes. "Oh, she's in one of her moods." She responded. "Common occurrence with Lily. Once in a while, she gets like this and you need to stay steer of her unless you want her to lash out on you." She frowned at her friend's explanation. "I think this one was caused by Snape yet again."
Evelyn remembered the conversation she had heard between Snape and Lily on Valentine's Day. Not only had she found out that Lily had a crush on Henrik, but that Snape was protective and jealous towards her.
"He's such a twat." Evelyn stated and Marlene hummed. "I don't know why Lily continues to be friends with him. Hasn't she heard the rumours about him meddling with Dark Arts?"
"Oh, she has," Marlene responded. "She just doesn't believe it's true." Evelyn furrowed her eyebrows as she didn't understand why Lily would think that. "Dorcas says that their friendship means so much to Lily that she would even turn a blind eye to him. I guess she was right on that."
Evelyn didn't understand how Lily could do that. She would never turn a blind eye just because she cared about someone too much.
It was only the first week of the fifth year and Evelyn was already feeling an immeasurable weight on her shoulder. Between homework, OWLs, her prefect duties and the club, she had never been so busy. Not even when she had been preparing for the debate. This worried her a lot as it was only the beginning. She could only imagine what the rest of the year was going to be for her.
As she finished her Transfiguration essay, Evelyn let out a sigh. She had yet to start revising for other classes for OWLs. She knew that she wasn't going to go anywhere before dinner.
Evelyn tapped her fingers against the table in the study hall as she opened her Potions notebook. She buried herself in the book, but her attention was pulled rather soon. Someone cleared her throat and Evelyn looked up.
Immediately, she recognized the girl. It was the first-year girl who had answered the riddle of the eagle knocker. "Hey." Evelyn greeted her.
"Hi." The girl pressed her lips together. "I'm sorry to interrupt you from your studies. I just wanted to ask for your help since you told us we can come to you when we needed it."
Evelyn had said those words, but she hadn't meant them at all. She didn't expect a first-year to actually come to her for help. She only said that to impress them and the rest of the house. Yet she was wrong.
"Of course." She pointed to the chair next to her. "Sit down." The girl did so. "What's your name?"
"My name is Nailah." She answered.
"That's a beautiful name," Evelyn told the girl and she smiled shyly. "So, what do you want to help you with?"
Nailah pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear and looked down. "I need help with my fasting." Evelyn frowned at the girl. "I'm Muslim and we have this monthly celebration..." The girl trailed off. "I wouldn't call it a celebration..." She seemed to be struggling to find the right words. "Either way, the month is called Ramadan and during it, we fast for the whole period of it. It's in a few days and I want to fast like I did the previous year."
"So, where is the problem?"
"We technically fast from dawn to sunset." She explained to her. "While I can eat my meal after sunset, I can't possibly eat my meal before dawn. Since I can't go that long without eating, I thought that maybe you could help me find a way to eat my meal before dawn."
"Oh..." Evelyn muttered under her breath. The truth was that she didn't know how to do this. She didn't know if the kitchens worked that early in the day. She definitely needed to check with Flitwick about this. "Alright." She muttered. "I'll talk to professor Flitwick and we can figure something out." She assured. "You don't have to worry about it."
Nailah relaxed her shoulders. "Thank you so much for helping me out."
"It's what I'm supposed to do," Evelyn muttered. She reminded herself to write this task down so she wouldn't forget.
Nailah got up from her seat, bid Evelyn goodbye and walked out of the Study Hall. Just as the girl walked away, Evelyn wrote down the task on her notebook.
As she was doing that, she felt a pair of eyes looking at her back. She turned her head only to face a window. While no one was behind it, Evelyn could still feel the odd sensation of being looked at.
She got up from her chair and walked towards the window. Her heart skipped a beat when she thought she saw a familiar face by the Forbidden Forest. She squinted her eyes to look better, but the familiar face disappeared. She blinked her eyes in hope that it would return.
"What are you looking at?"
Evelyn let out a yelp at the sudden voice. She had thought she was the only one in the Study hall of their common. She clearly had been wrong.
"Baby Evie..." She didn't have to guess who it was based on the nickname.
"Merlin, Ed. Warn people before you speak." She told him as she crossed her arms.
Edrick scoffed. "I called your name a few times, but you were too busy looking at the Forbidden Forest." Evelyn glanced at the forest. There was no one around it. "Why were you looking at it?"
Unlike Marlene, Edrick was aware of her family's ancestry. He knew that she was descendants of Salazar Slytherin and was a Parselmouth. Also, he took Divination alongside Carter. Maybe he could shed some light into her weird dream.
"Before I tell you this, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone. Not even our friends."
Edrick frowned before he hummed. "I promise." He mumbled. "Wait, are you planning to go to the Forbidden Forest? Because I think Chris and me would be your best companions for it-"
"During my stay in America, I saw a weird dream." She cut him off and started to explain it to him. "At first, I was in this pitch-black place and a bunch of kids appeared in front of me before disappearing again. Five different kids. Three girls and two boys." Edrick's frown deepened as she continued to explain. "Out of sudden, a silvery looking woman appeared and the whole place lit up. I realized that I wasn't in some pitch-black place, I was standing near the lake and facing Hogwarts. This woman who is floating comes closer to him and tells me not to leave Hogwarts."
"Why would she tell you that?"
Evelyn shook her head. "During my whole stay, my dad kept insisting for me to transfer to Ilvermorny. I had that dream a few minutes after I talked to him about that."
Edrick's jaw fell open and he blinked a few times. "Oh, oh, that's creepy." He commented and she hummed in agreement. "That can't be a coincidence, right?"
"I don't know," she mumbled. "I thought I could ask because you take Divination and you have a good grade."
"Baby Evie, I spend that whole class taking the piss with Carter. We come up with the weirdest dreams and get a good grade based on that." She groaned. She had hoped that Edrick would help her shed some light. "Maybe I can help you through. Do you remember how the kids looked?"
She nodded her head. "Not very well. I think they were purposely blurred for me not notice their faces. I only saw their skin tones, eye colour and hair." She informed him and he scrunched his nose. "The first kid was a girl. Tallest of the bunch. Maybe my height. She was white, honey blonde hair and..." Evelyn trailed off as she remembered the eyes of the girl. "and green jade eyes."
At that moment, Evelyn realized why the eyes of that girl seemed so familiar. She had seen those eyes looked down on her since she was a baby. The girl's eyes were familiar to her because they were eerily similar to her mum's.
"Those eyes reminded me of my mum." Edric's mouth fell at her words. "They were almost identical."
"Maybe that girl is a Sinclair? Or was in the past?"
Evelyn shook her head. "No, no. Sinclairs are strictly platonic blonde." She pointed to her hair. "They have been for generations. Of course, until Elena who has light brown hair." She stopped herself. "This kid can be related to both my mum and her. Merlin, she can be related to me. I probably have the green-eyed gene."
Edrick put his hand on her shoulder. "Okay, you need to calm down." He told her and she sighed. How could she calm down? This revelation brought on more questions than answered them. "There's no way we can know based on one kid. Tell me about the others."
She looked down to her hands that were shaking. Just the thought of the dream made her lose her mind. She wished that she hadn't seen it at all.
"Afterwards, there was another girl who had short light brown hair. She was white as well and her eyes reminded me of Don and his brothers. They were as bright as almonds." Edrick's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. She didn't even know what to think of this kid. Was it possible that she was a Bailey ancestor? "The oddest thing was that this girl clutched her heart."
"Maybe she was trying to tell you something."
"I don't know," Evelyn muttered. "After her, it was a boy. His skin was darker. Brown would best to describe it. He had jet-black hair, green eyes, glasses and there was something of a scar on his forehead. I thought I couldn't make out the form of it."
"This is so strange," Edrick muttered under his breath. "How about the two others?"
"These two came in a pair." She answered him. "Boy and girl. The boy was blonde, dirty-blonde and had blue eyes. The girl had long curly black hair and grey eyes. They stayed a bit longer and they smiled at me. As soon as they did, they disappeared and the woman came and Hogwarts appeared."
Edrick stayed silent for a couple of minutes. He glanced at her and the Forbidden Forest. After he was done, he cleared his throat and turned to face her.
"I think for whatever reason those kids are tied with you staying in Hogwarts." He murmured and she furrowed her eyebrows. "Maybe those kids aren't from the past, maybe they are from the future."
She blinked a few times. "Future?" She didn't get how she was tied to the future of any of those kids. "What do you think so?"
"Because I'm certain that those two kids who smiled, especially the boy, could be your future kids, Evelyn."
"Does someone in your family have grey eyes?"
The two of them were doing their prefect rounds. Other than helping Remus with the schedule, she had put a lot of interhouses prefect rounds. While she had told Helen she did for house unity, the truth was that she did it to see Rabastan more often.
As soon as Evelyn asked Rabastan that question, she noticed him tense. His arms hunched and his jaw clenched before he turned to look at her.
"Why do you ask?"
Evelyn pressed her lips together. She was thinking about Edrick's theory. His friend was sure that those two last kids were hers. While she could understand the theory about the boy, the girl didn't look anything like her. While she had dark hair similar to Rabastan, her eyes were grey while his eyes were midnight blue.
"Edrick said that grey eyes are quite common in the pureblood circles." Evelyn didn't lie. Edrick had told her that after telling her of his theory. It was quite likely that grey eyes ran in the Lestrange blood.
"We do," Rabastan answered. She stopped herself from letting out a sigh of relief. The only person she could see herself having kids was Rabastan. Of course, that wasn't going to happen until she was in her late 20s or early 30s. "My brother and my dad have grey eyes. So did my sister. I only have them because mum does too."
At the mention of his family, she remembered Sirius' warning. Since returning to Hogwarts, Evelyn wasn't able to speak about this with Rabastan.
"Speaking of your family, I'm starting to worry about them more and more every day." Rabastan arched his eyebrows at her confession. "I'm starting to worry about my safety when people find out we are dating."
Rabastan rolled his eyes. "Evelyn, that's ridiculous. You don't have to worry about that at all. I'm the one who has to worry about that."
"They will never hurt one of their own." He scoffed. "They will punish you, but they will never kill you. They will kill me if they ever find out, won't they?"
Rabastan rubbed the bridge of his nose before letting out a dry laugh. "Let me guess. Decan told you all about this."
"No," Evelyn told him. She didn't know how she was going to tell him that it was Sirius.
He turned to face her. "Don't lie to me." He snarled at her. "Do you think I'm a fool? I'm quite aware that your friends don't like me, especially Decan. He didn't even like me when we were kids."
"That's not true." Evelyn scoffed. "My friends like you. They don't know you, but they like you." Evelyn wasn't sure of her words though. None of her friends had outright said that they liked Rabastan. She couldn't remember the last time she spoke about him with them. After all, Rabastan had told her that her friends had no business knowing about their relationship.
"They don't like me. I can see it in their faces whenever I'm around them." He pointed out to her and she shook her head. If he saw it, she would see it too. So, she didn't believe her friends showed in their faces. "Why do you think I told you not to talk about us in front of them?"
"I thought you told me not to talk about us because it's private."
"That wasn't the only reason," Rabastan revealed. "I also told you because they would convince you to break up with me if I make the smallest mistake."
Evelyn shook her head. "My friends aren't like that." She insisted.
"Are you sure?"
His question threw her off. Evelyn believed that she knew her friends and what they were capable of. Yet she remembered an important detail about their friendship. Her friends also believed that they knew her and what she was capable of. They didn't. They only knew one side of her, the side she wanted the whole world to see. They didn't know her.
The table could easily turn. Her friends could be deceiving her just as she was deceiving her. They could all pretend that they liked Rabastan. Her friends could be waiting for the perfect moment to break up her and Rabastan. She could see the point on why Rabastan asked her to keep their matters private.
Evelyn wanted to believe that her friends were better. She wanted to believe that they were better people than her. She loved to act as if she was better than anyone else, but Evelyn knew she was far from that. She wanted to believe that her friends would be supportive of her until the very end.
"They won't do that."
Rabastan scoffed. "You say that now, Evelyn. Wait a few days, weeks or months, you'll soon hear your friend whispering bad things about me. It won't take long, I can assure you that. No one can hide their true self forever."
His last sentence didn't make her think about her friends. It made her think about Hart's words to her. How she was ticking bomb and how she was going to explode soon no matter what.
It seemed like sleep had become a luxury for Evelyn Sinclair King. Since she had come back to Hogwarts, she had scarcely slept. She spent most of her nights studying or thinking. In truth, she studied to stop herself from thinking too much.
Her thoughts were plagued by her dreams of those kids, Hart's words, the person behind his words and what her boyfriends said about her friends. It was disturbing to Evelyn that the OWLs weren't even a first thought to her. The day where her studies weren't her top priorities had come and Evelyn didn't like it at all. She thought that day would come after she finished Hogwarts.
Evelyn walked inside the Great Hall as a ghost. Pale, sickly and exhausted. If it hadn't been for her red lipstick and platinum blonde hair, she was sure that people would mistake her for one of the ghosts.
As she was making her way to her house table where all of her friends were, Marlene called for her.
The blonde girl turned her head to see her best friend accompanied by Alice and Lily in the Gryffindor table. She was beckoning to Evelyn to come and sit with them.
There was hesitance in Evelyn's step as she looked around the table. Her eyes studied the Marauders who weren't sitting that far away from Marlene. To her luck, the four of them seemed busy having a hushed conversation. Since the coast was clear, Evelyn took a seat on the table.
"Another sleepless night, I presume?" Marlene muttered as she watched Evelyn settle.
"You know a good morning would be a better conversation starter." She told her friend as she got helped herself to some coffee.
Lily snorted. She was sitting on Evelyn's right side. "Marlene has her conversations the way she wants."
"And look at how many people in my life that brought me." Marlene quipped before taking a spoonful of her porridge. Lily giggled but didn't say anything. Evelyn noticed that the girl was in a better mood compared to the previous days. "Seriously, people get hospitalized when they don't sleep."
"It's not like I'm doing this on purpose, Marls," Evelyn muttered under her breath. "Last night, I tried to sleep. I couldn't at all."
"Why don't you ask Madam Pomfrey for some sleeping potion?" Alice suggested to her.
Lily shook her head. "She doesn't give it freely as people abuse it." She explained to them. "It's a very addicting potion from what I've read."
"Oh, please, she wouldn't drink it if she had it. She likes staying up all night." Marlene pointed out.
Evelyn rolled her eyes. She wished she had slept last night rather than think about her talk with Rabastan. The talk had been so haunting that she was thinking that maybe her friends were just as big of liars as her.
"Yes, Marlene, I would prefer to be sleepless than have some rest." She deadpanned making Alice and Lily giggle.
"Exactly," Marlene exclaimed rather loud. "Why else would you stay all night doing the prefects' patrolling schedule?"
As soon as those words slipped Marlene's lips, four cutleries dropped on the table. They made such noise that they all jumped. Alice even poured some pumpkin juice on her robes.
All four of them turned to look at where the noise came from.
It was the Marauders. All of them had dropped whatever cutlery they were holding. What was worse they were all looking at Evelyn with stunned looks upon their faces.
Her face flushed and she looked away in realization. The Marauders were probably talking about the patrolling schedule before she arrived. The coordination with the lunar cycle probably caused suspicion amongst them. Now, due to Marlene's loud voice, the four of them knew that she was behind it.
"What the bloody hell was that?!" Lily spat at the Marauders. "Are you four mad?"
Evelyn didn't dare to look at the Marauders. She needed to find reasons to leave the table before they start to question her. With Rabastan here, it would be only trouble for her if they started to have a conversation with her.
Someone cleared their throat. "It was nothing," James spoke up. His voice firm and quite unlike him. "Sorry for scaring you."
Lily scoffed. "You better be." The redhead turned her attention to the food and so did the other girls.
Evelyn didn't move or say anything. She waited for the Marauders to call her name or anything of that sort. She dreaded the moment, but she knew it was going to happen. After all, she could hear them whisper to one another.
To her luck, during the whole meal, the Marauders didn't say anything to her or the girls. She was glad of that. Although, she knew well she was going to speak to them, specifically Remus, sooner than later.
Evelyn tapped her foot against the stone floor as she waited for the Gryffindor prefect to join. She wished that it was Lily who was joining her tonight while Remus patrolled with Barty. Yet she knew better than to expect that.
Since the Marauders had found out what she did, they hadn't approached her. It worried Evelyn a bit as she didn't know what they were thinking about this. Maybe they were more concerned than relieved with the help she had given Remus.
At the sound of footsteps, Evelyn straightened her back and looked up. As she expected, Remus was the prefect that would join her tonight.
She could see that he was dragging himself towards her. She wondered if he would prefer not to have this conversation with her. She would prefer them to avoid it too even though it needed to happen.
Remus stopped in front of her and exhaled. "Hello, Lynn."
Evelyn offered him one of her best smiles. "Hi, Remus." Awkwardness surrounded them as soon as Evelyn uttered those words. The boy was doing his best to avoid eye contact with her. "Should we start with the East Wing or Weast Wing?"
At that moment, Remus faced her. Her light blu eyes met his dark green ones. "How long have you known?"
"Right to the point, I see." Evelyn shifted under his gaze before answering. "Since the third year."
"When exactly in the third year?"
Evelyn tilted her head. "End of January, I think. We were studying werewolves in our class and it just clicked to me." She remembered quite well. She thought herself to be stupid not to figure out before.
"Have you told your friends?" Remus' voice croaked as he asked her that question.
"No." She responded. "After all, it wasn't my secret to share."
Remus scoffed. "It is when it endangers people." He pointed out to her.
Evelyn didn't expect him to say. She blinked a few times. It took her off guard, especially his cold tone. It was if he would have wanted her to tell the whole school. "As far as I know, you haven't endangered anyone."
"I'm classified as a beast by the Ministry." He whispered his words to her. His voice was so quiet that she was surprised that she even heard it.
"The Ministry is wrong," Evelyn stated. "You're someone with a condition that was caused by an infection. Instead of pressing you, they should be trying to find some cure or any kind of potion that could help you." She scoffed. "Of course, that would make them sweat, so they won't even bother."
Remus didn't crack a smile or even make any movement. He only looked at her making her extremely uncomfortable for a few seconds.
"So, you don't think I'm dangerous?"
"Not right now." She assured him. "I doubt that I'll feel endangered even if you are in the form where you're considered dangerous. After all, Dumbledore wouldn't have let you attend Hogwarts by taking precautions."
"He has. I can assure you."
Evelyn hummed. "Good," she responded. "Should we start now? The last thing, we want is to make McGonagall angry."
"Merlin forbid." He muttered making her chuckle.
The two of them continued their patrolling in silence. It was obvious to her that Remus was thinking hard. She didn't want to interrupt as she had some thinking of her own to do. With how much she thought of matters in details, it was better for her to call it overthinking than simply thinking.
"I knew you wouldn't react badly," Remus announced out of the sudden. She turned to look at him and raised her eyebrow. "I heard you make this speech how unfair we are treated to some other Gryffindors in our year. At the time, I didn't know you knew about me."
Evelyn remembered that memory quite clearly. Yet she didn't remember the detail Remus was talking about. "You were there?"
"At the back with the boys." He murmured. "Your speech made my week at the time. James and Sirius would quote it to me whenever they could." Evelyn laughed. "I pretended I was annoyed by it, but to be he honest, I did quite enjoy it."
"People do say I'm eloquent at times." Evelyn raised her chin. "Especially when I'm speaking the truth."
"Some people would say that it's an opinion. A wrong opinion." Remus reminded her.
Evelyn shrugged. "The world is allowed to have idiots."
"Sometimes, these idiots can be your friends."
"I can assure you that my friends aren't that kind of idiots." But your boyfriend is, a voice in her head spoke. She winced at it before pressing her lips. "And it seems like neither are your friends. That's what matters."
"It will be great if the idiots weren't the Minister and his cabinet too."
Evelyn smiled at him. "They won't last, Remus. One day, they will be replaced and our community would be a better place." He raised an eyebrow at her statement. "I can assure you of that."
She turned her back to continue their patrols. As she did, she could feel the lingering gaze of Remus on her shoulder. She wondered what he was thinking about her words.
Thank you for reading, reviewing, favouriting and following my story. It's very much appreciated. If you ca, please leave a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter.
Guest your fan: Evelyn's exhausting will be a continuing theme for this year. What better to represent it with the first chapter back on school. Oh, yes, Rabastan has definitely reached the asshole territory he was heading for. We will find out how Sirius will react to this a little bit later than you might expect.
Next up, Ticking Bomb
